Four arrested for duping people on pretext of PMAY

Four persons were arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district for allegedly duping several people in the name of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, a flagship Central government housing scheme, police said Sunday. The accused, allegedly posing as government officials, had siphoned off money from the accounts of the people by collecting their bank and identity details on the pretext of providing houses under the scheme, an official said. The four were arrested from Lailunga area here on Saturday based on the complaint of two Kharsia residents additional superintendent of police Rajesh Agrawal said.

Deputy commissioner of police (ANC) Shivdeep Lande said the two are part of an international drug cartel and added that a hunt for their local contacts was underway. SRINAGAR/ JAMMU: Top Al-badr commander Zeenat-ul-islam was among the two militants killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Sunday.

“The two militants killed in the Katpora encounter have been identified as Zeenat-ul-islam and Shakeel Ahmad Dar. Both were involved i n several terror crimes,” a police official said. Islam, a category A++ militant, was a top commander who had switched over to Al-badr from Hizbul Mujahideen in November last year following consensus between t he t wo outfits t o strengthen the Al-badr, he said.

The official said security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Katpora area of Yaripora in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district Saturday evening after receiving specific information about the presence of militants there. He said as the forces were conducting the searches, when the militants fired upon them. As per policy, the militants were given an opportunity to surrender, but they continued to fire upon the forces, the official said.

The forces retaliated, ensuing an encounter in which two the militants were killed, he said.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman said both the killed militants were affiliated with Al-badr and were wanted by the law for “their complicity in a series of terror crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities”.

“Islam, according to police records had a long history of terror crime records since 2006 when he got affiliated with Al-badr and was later arrested,” he said. The spokesman said after Islam was released, he again got recycled in 2016 and subsequently affiliated with Hizbul and then recently joined the Al-badr outfit in Shopian district. “Consequently, he became the chief of the said outfit...similarly, Shakeel Ahmad Dar was also involved in terror related crimes as well,” the spokesman said.

He said incriminating material such as arms and ammunition was recovered from the site of encounter and all these materials have been taken in the case records for the purpose of investigation.

The spokesman said no collateral damage took place and the bodies of the militants were handed over to their families after completion of medico-legal formalities, he said.

SOLDIER INJURED IN PAK FIRING ALONG LOC

An Army personnel was injured Sunday when Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing from across the Line of Control (LOC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. The soldier, manning a forward post, was hit by a bullet apparently from a Pakistani sniper in Keri sector and was hospitalised, they said, adding the Indian troops retaliated and the exchange of fire between the two sides continued for some time.

There has been a spurt in ceasefire violations along the LOC in Rajouri and Poonch since the beginning of this year, resulting in the killing of two army personnel. An army major and a soldier were killed when an improvised explosive device went off in Rajouri’s Naushera on Friday.

RAIGARH (CHHATTISGARH):